HOUSE BILL 257

52nd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2016

INTRODUCED BY

Yvette Herrell and Deborah A. Armstrong

AN ACT

RELATING TO PUBLIC EDUCATION; AMENDING THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CODE TO REQUIRE THAT EACH PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT EMPLOY A MINIMUM OF ONE FULL-TIME, LICENSED REGISTERED SCHOOL NURSE; MAKING AN APPROPRIATION.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. Section 22-8-9 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1967, Chapter 16, Section 63, as amended) is amended to read:

     "22-8-9. BUDGETS--MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS.--

          A. A budget for a school district shall not be approved by the department that does not provide for:

                (1) a school year and school day as provided in Section 22-2-8.1 NMSA 1978; [and]

                (2) a pupil-teacher ratio or class or teaching load as provided in Section 22-10A-20 NMSA 1978; and

                (3) a full-time, department-licensed registered school nurse employed in the school district.

          B. The department shall, by rule, establish the requirements for an instructional day, the standards for an instructional hour, [and] the standards for a full-time teacher and for the equivalent thereof.

          C. Except as provided in Subsection D of this section, the department shall promulgate rules for the implementation of the minimum requirement for a full-time, department-licensed registered school nurse in all school districts in New Mexico.

          D. The department may promulgate rules to allow for a waiver of the requirement in Paragraph (3) of Subsection A of this section for a rural school district with a student MEM of less than two hundred fifty; provided that:

                (1) the school district demonstrates that it can meet the requirements of this section by hiring a part-time, department-licensed registered school nurse; or

                (2) the school district is not able to hire a qualified nurse or contract with a third party for a qualified nurse because of insufficient availability of such nurses in its geographic vicinity; and

                (3) the school district requesting a waiver shall document its unsuccessful attempts to hire or contract with a department-licensed, registered school nurse."

     SECTION 2. APPROPRIATION.--One million six hundred fifty thousand dollars ($1,650,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the public education department for expenditure in fiscal year 2017 to assist school districts that have student enrollments of less than two hundred fifty MEM to employ a department-licensed registered school nurse for the 2016-2017 school year. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2017 shall revert to the general fund.

     SECTION 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2016.

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